The NYT had an opinion box up yesterday titled, "What it Means if the Death Penalty is Dying." Six people are given the chance to voice their views, four abolitionists and two supporters (if the opinion box reflected the electorate, the numbers would be reversed).
But the main thing I want to note is the conditional phrase, "...if the Death Penalty is Dying."
If the NYT took the trouble to report news instead of its wish list, it would know, as the not-so-conservative "Slate" has recently reported, that the death penalty, far from dying, seems to be healthier than it's been in quite some time. Its popularity in parts of the world that (as someone should remind the Times) no longer regard themselves as subservient to white people in Europe is strong and growing. And the pace of executions in this county puts us on the path to having done, by year's end, 56 of them -- the highest number in since 2005, and a little more than one each week.
Put that together with the Supreme Court's having twice recently turned away the latest in abolitionist obstructionism -- the argument that the drug-producing pharmacy must be disclosed (in the Ferguson and most recently the Sells execution) -- the NYT's opinion box might more appropriately have been titled, "What it Would Mean if the New York Times Stopped Publishing Its Wish List as News."
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